Above all, DeMarcus Cousins hoped that the coming season would bring good health – something he hasn’t enjoyed for two years.

A knee injury during an offseason workout has derailed that hope before the Lakers could even get into training camp.

Excel Sports Management confirmed Thursday afternoon that Cousins, a six-time All-Star center, suffered a torn left ACL, adding to a laundry list that the once-dominant big man has struggled through for the past two seasons. The timeline for his surgery and recovery is still being discussed.

According to an ESPN report, Cousins’ injury occurred Monday in Las Vegas when he “bumped knees” with another player (see video below) and had to leave the court. Word leaked out Thursday morning that Cousins’ camp feared an ACL injury, which was confirmed by a team evaluation later in the day.

It was a jarring blow to the Lakers, who had seen Cousins in excellent shape during offseason workouts, and viewed him as a potential “X-factor” in raising the team’s ceiling as a title contender.

“It’s super unfortunate because just how much he loves basketball,” Kyle Kuzma said. “Throughout all these injuries he’s kind of fought back to get in as soon as possible.”

The 29-year-old big man has a checkered injury history of late: He tore his Achilles tendon in January 2018 with the New Orleans Pelicans, taking a year to recover before taking the court again. In his campaign last year with the Golden State Warriors, he tore his quad in the first-round playoff series against the Clippers.

When healthy, Cousins has been one of the most dominant big men in the NBA: He has averaged 21.2 points and 10.9 rebounds for his career. But he has played in only 78 regular season games in the past two seasons.

“Everything I’ve gone through in the past three years, it just helped me realize how fast this thing can be taken away from you,” he told Los Angeles media last month after he signed with the Lakers. “I love it that much more. I’m grateful for every opportunity. I learned the hard way.”

Steve Kerr, who is in Los Angeles with USA Basketball, said he was “devastated” to see a player he coached last year suffer another setback. While the Warriors faltered in the Finals against the Toronto Raptors with other injury issues, he credited Cousins for helping win two of the games in the series. He had hoped that he could emerge from his injuries after “a couple years of hell.”

“I was really hoping that this would be a year for him upcoming with the Lakers where he could get healthy, get his rhythm, get his conditioning and really start his comeback,” Kerr said. “We’re all crushed for him, everybody in this gym, all these fellow players and coaches. This is a small community. Everybody’s been talking about it. We’ve all reached out to him. We all just feel terrible for him.”

In the meantime, there are rotation questions for the Lakers who lose a credible scoring threat from the center position. The team re-signed center JaVale McGee this offseason to bolster their front court depth, and he could see a boost to his minutes. Davis has publicly said that he wishes to play power forward, but Cousins’ injury could shift more of his minutes to center.

The Lakers also played Kuzma at center at times last year, but mostly scrapped those lineups. Kuzma said he believes he can play center if needed.

The Lakers did not issue an official statement about Cousins’ injury, but the mood was reportedly somber among team staffers. Other players participating in USA Basketball (Cousins played on gold-medal national teams in 2014 and 2016) said they were feeling for Cousins and hoping he heals quickly.

“It breaks my heart, man, DeMarcus is such a good guy,” P.J. Tucker said. “You see somebody like that get hurt, fight to come back, get in shape, lose weight, do all that stuff, and then get hurt again – it’s heartbreaking, honestly.”

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